Ancillary Task 1: Album cover development.

I have recently been working on the cover for the 2013 album 'Yeezus' by Kanye West, the album where the song 'Blood On The Leaves' features, which is the song I am using for my music video.

I mainly work on Adobe Illustrator, as I am also a A level graphic design student, so I feel confident using this software, but I also use photoshop too, a software I have been using in my Photograohy classes. It really depends on the style I'm feeling for each mock up album cover I design. My experience in other creative areas is helpful as I understand how work goes into developing ideas to put forward to even be considered as a design as I am currently designing a new magazine for graphics.

These design are just some things which I wanted to digitise because they have been thoughts which have just popped into my head when listening to the song 'Blood on the leaves'.

This is something which I feel portrays the modern, rockstar type, feel of the album 'Yeezus'. It reminds of when a television has no signal and produces this type of technical error. I like this cover, however I do feel there is plenty of work to be done to develop this into a professional piece of design.

This is another one of my minimalistic designs, it is very simple yet has meaning to both the album and the artist. The texture in the back ground is actually Leopard seal skin, an unusual material to use in modern life, however this material has been used by the designer Martin Margeila for custom shoes for Kanye West himself, I also am really interested in the leopard like pattern on the fur.  

Filming 23rd December 2014.

Location: Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, Western Cape, South Africa.

Kirstenbosch is known as one of the most beautiful gardens in the world, with a plethora of plant species and small animals, it is hard to not find something incredible. On visit I chose to bring my Nikon D3300 to take both establishing and filler shots for my music video, with an amazing back drop of Table Mountain National Park and an abundance of natural beauty I thought it was the best place to do this here in South Africa.

During my visit I also took plenty of photographs which I am considering to use for my artwork and ancillary tasks, the digipack cover and the magazine advertisement.

Ancillary Task 1 - Album Design for 'Yeezus'

Looking through a number of redesigns for the album 'Yeezus' By Kanye West, I feel that many designers have overcomplicated the cover design. They haven't taken into consideration the message of the American rapper, which is portrayed in the album. When creating something as important as a number one best selling album, you have to attempt to create near perfection. In my design, I want to capture on the one hand the rage and anger of Kanye's music, but on the other the simplification of sound and instrumentation, the highlighting of vocals and lyric.

Here you can see a design which has been overcomplicated, because the graphic elements cover the whole piece. There is a lack of negative space, which I feel, when used correctly, really compliments a piece of design. In my design I often favour the use of negative space for that reason.

Here is another cover design which I feel is failing to promote and communicate the message which the album is intending. The palette of colours featured in the design doesn't match the harsh lyrics and feel of the album. Using pink and blues are often found on albums for House/Dance genre, as they are colure associated with teens and partying.

Moving onto the cover which was used for the album. This one was design by Kanye West and his team. This leaves much to the imagination but also uses an incredibly minimalist approached, like nothing seen before. The only addition to the clear CD cover is a grain-textured red sticker. Red is often associated with anger and danger, which suits the albums message.

I do believe that attempting to redesign an album so brilliantly designed in the first place is a tough brief to partake in but I personally trust myself to create something which communicates the message of the album, yet also doesn't give away too much through over-clustering the design.

Inspiration for Digitpak.

Album cover inspiration for Kanye West album 'Yeezus' 2013.

I have looked at a number of album covers from the same genre category, Hip Hop/Rap. Something which I want to incorporate into my digipak design is the use of a minimalist style to direct the audiences focus onto the main item or logo of the album. To do this I won't clutter the page with writing, and I will preserve the negative space which features.

Above is a mixture of single and album covers, 'Born Sinner' by J Cole, 'My beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' By Kanye West, 'Lunch Money' by Pusha T and 'My Name Is My Name' also by by Pusha T. All of the digipaks above place the main element of the cover in the centre, and preserve the negative space around the edge.

CD cover conventions

        A CD cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio product.  Since the mid-1990s, the CD has become the most common form of physically-distributed music products.

The conventions of a pop CD cover are that bright colours such as pink and electric blues are often used as the target audience is usually young people. The bright colours and bold colourful sans-serif typeface reflect the fun lively dance beats of pop music that is listened to worldwide by many types of people.

The conventions of a rock CD cover are that dark colours like black and red are used, usually outlined with white against a dark background. Gothic and horror images are often used like skeletons, skulls and dark creatures which supports the idea that rock artists are mysterious and dangerous people. This would catch the attention of the target audience who would also show an interest of such things.

The conventions of a rap/hip-hop CD cover are that males are often displayed shirtless and showing of tattoos which shows the audience that they are attractive and masculine. Females are often shown wearing revealing clothes and both men and women often wear expensive looking jewellery which is often mentioned in rap lyrics. Most rap CD covers have an explicit content sign to warn the audience which shows that the target audience is young adults who use explicit language.

Production company logo 2.

Using Adobe Illustrator I designed a second potential production company logo. It consists of 3 overlapping W's, different sizes and colour opacities.

The W's represent 2 things. First W for 'Whitfield', the first letter of my second name. Secondly the 3 W's stand for 'World Wide Web', which was created in 1989 by Tim Burners Lee. It revolutionised the way audiences consumed content. Music Videos being one of the most watched piece of content on the internet, makes the logo fitting for the company.

Illustrator allows me to change colours, size, shape and opacity easily and also allows me to reverse the action if required.

By altering the opacity other colours or tones can be seen through, providing an interesting visual.

Purple Trio Logo.

Blue Trio Logo.

Red Trio Logo.

White Trio logo.

Each colour set for the logos could be used to each represent a certain music genre for the company. E.g. Red Trio logo for Rock, Blue Trio Logo for Pop, Purple Trio Logo for Rap/Hip Hop and the White Trio Logo for pop genre.

Production company logo.

I initially started off with some sketches, with an idea of having a speech bubble, encasing the name of the company 'COLEKT'.

I established the shape and refined my sketches in pencil.

I then went over the sketches with a fine liner pen to create a more defined image so it was ready to be scanned onto Illustrator.

When the image was scanned on I was able to play around with the lines and shapes of the logo.

Here is my final logo, finalised in Illustrator.

I then changed the colours to red and black, so it is more appropriate for the music video.

Here is my final production company. COLEKT PRODUCTIONS.

Preparation for filming: Wednesday 10th December

The aim of  tomorrow is to film mainly establishing shots and fillers for the music video and also to capture the intro to the music video, before the music actually begins, to set the scene and potentially add credits.

Location: Richmond Park

Time: 7:00am - 8:00am

Equipment: 

-Tripod

-Crane

-Slider

-Nikon D3300

-SD card X2

-Extra battery pack

I have chosen my equipment carefully to give me the best chance at creating a professional and visual enthral king piece of film. 

Location and timing:

I want to film in a remote are of the park, which seems to be scares of human activity, so no roads or card or people, just nature. I don't really mind if there are any animals in the shots, e.g. deer which inhabit the park, because they fit into the genre guidelines and have relevance to the lyrics and message of the song. I'm choosing to film at 7am, the opening time of the park, because I personally feel that the lighting is the best at that time to match the description of the song and the message. There might also be frost or dew on the grass, leaves and trees which add to this feel and image I want to portray.